Salvete and felicitations to all here! I'm Nephele, a moderator at UNRV.com. Ursus has been talking up Societas Via Romana over at UNRV, saying a lot of great things about y'all, so I thought I'd stop by and give you a hail.

I have a fascination for onomastics, and Roman nomenclature is one of my big interests when it comes to Rome and her society.

I'm also an obsessive anagrammatist, and I have a thread going over at UNRV in which I can find your "Hidden Roman Name" through the art of anagramming and blanagramming. If anyone here is curious as to what your hidden Roman name might be, you're welcome to post a scramble of your name over in that thread:

I have just discovered UNRV thanks to L. Ovidius Ursus. I do like your site very much, so felicitations are due there too, I think. It seems like you guys are very much on the same wave lenght as us, if I may be so bold as to speak for my fellow citizens here.I have already seen a few familiar faces over there, so.But I was particularly fascinated by what you manage to do with anagrams and what you call blanagrams. Excellent stuff ! Can't resist that.I was just about to register at your site, when I switched back over here to check up on something, and lo and behold ! There you are. If that isn't a sign, I don't know what is.So I'm looking forward to what you can come up with for me, and of course, to seeing you over here from time to time maybe !

I have just discovered UNRV thanks to L. Ovidius Ursus. I do like your site very much, so felicitations are due there too, I think. It seems like you guys are very much on the same wave lenght as us, if I may be so bold as to speak for my fellow citizens here.I have already seen a few familiar faces over there, so.But I was particularly fascinated by what you manage to do with anagrams and what you call blanagrams. Excellent stuff ! Can't resist that.I was just about to register at your site, when I switched back over here to check up on something, and lo and behold ! There you are. If that isn't a sign, I don't know what is.So I'm looking forward to what you can come up with for me, and of course, to seeing you over here from time to time maybe !

Thank you for your greeting, Formosus Viriustus! I've blanagrammed your "hidden Roman name" for you over at UNRV. I see that our member Aurelia is a neighbor of yours, too! Looking forward to conversing with you -- both at UNRV and over here!

Q Valerius wrote:UNRV here? Now I have even more reason to leave. UNRV banned me because I upset one of their precious forum "scholars", or rather, pseudo-scholar. Ugh. Sorry to rant, I bet you weren't a moderator then. So no ill-will to you. But The Bear was.

I'm sorry if your experiences with UNRV are not all that positive, QV, but I feel I have to stand up for my new friends here. What you say doesn't correspond at all with my limited experience so far. Maybe it was the tone you used ?

And our newest member, Nephele, is not only a fun girl, but a True Genius with names and words. And not just that. Check out her work at UNRV. You'll be amazed.And despite her youthful looks and tender age (2) she is not a mean scholar either. But who am I to judge that, hè ?

I am almost afraid to ask, but what are anagramming and blanagramming?

Paulus

Hi, Paulus! Anagramming and blanagramming are the re-arrangement of letters to produce something new -- in this case, a Roman name from one's actual name. Anagramming is an art that goes back to ancient times, and was used in Kabbalah, as well. Sometimes the results can be surprising.

But you still haven't explained where 'Blanagramming' comes from. Is that your own invention ?And glad you like 'Mundungus' too. I have a weakness for those kind of things myself.(Formosus lights another one. )

Oops! Okay, I'll explain. No, blanagramming isn't my own invention. A "blanagram" is like an anagram except one letter has been exchanged for another, like using a blank tile in the game of Scrabble. In fact, the word "blanagram" is a portmanteau word of "blank" and "anagram."

I cheat a little bit with my own blanagrams, in that I may exchange more than one letter when blanagramming a Roman name. That's because a masculine Roman name generally has to have the letters "i," "u," and "s" in it, and a feminine Roman name generally requires a couple of "a's." Plus, if a person's actual name has letters in it that weren't used in the classical Latin alphabet (such as "j" or "w"), then I'll exchange those letters for more likely ones.

I base my resulting Roman names on actual praenomina, nomina gentilicia, and cognomina that can be verified by Broughton's Magistrates of the Roman Republic, Kajanto's The Latin Cognomina, and other scholarly sources.

Those examples you gave of what I did with your name, Formosus, only include one such blanagram. The rest (as in the Asterix-style "Furious Stormius") were just goofy fun.